Comments on: What’s Your Stance on Social Media Gray Areas?

By: Leo Bottary

Leo Bottary — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 23:25:37 +0000

Nice post David – as usual. Since there are gray areas in life, it stands to reason there are gray areas in social media. Behavior in the social media arena should be guided first and foremost by the same ethical principles that guide other disciplines within the organization. As for ghostwriting, here’s my take on it from a blog post I wrote in June. http://snurl.com/pypdi

By: That’s All I Have To Say About That

That’s All I Have To Say About That — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 15:02:00 +0000

[...] What’s Your Stance on Social Media Gray Areas? (David Mullen, Communications Catalyst) – as companies get more and more into social media, I think it’s very important for companies to have a unified position on topics such as these “gray areas.” [...]

By: Matt Cheuvront

Matt Cheuvront — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 10:56:25 +0000

Very interesting topic that I’ll be able to speak more on in the near future. I am starting today in the field of healthcare – developing, optimizing, and maintaining their web and social media presence from the ground up. It’s my mindset that social media is, not unlike other forms of marketing and PR, a tool – a supplemental tool that should closely coordinate with the other marketing ongoing marketing efforts. Therefore my goal is to not only approach new avenues currently not being used, but to collaborate closely with the current PR team to make sure we’re covering each others tracks from all available avenues.

By: DR. WHAW? – August 4, 2009 « One true sentence.

DR. WHAW? – August 4, 2009 « One true sentence. — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 22:36:02 +0000

[...] What’s Your Stance on Social Media Gray Areas? by David Mullen — A second question from a second (but not lesser) David. Coincidentally, [...]

By: Anna Barcelos

Anna Barcelos — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 17:43:53 +0000

Hi David!
(I haven’t been to your blog in a l while. Long enough to see you have a great new design, so sorry)

Discussions like these come up weekly at my company. Every case is different but always has to tie in to our overall branding/corporate strategy.

This week I’m being faced with with a “gray area” at my company. Thankfully, our CEO and other members of our team currently blog and tweet on their own. I’m a believer that one should represent themselves. HOWEVER, there are a couple of amazingly knowledgable folks here that I know will not write for our company blog. Web 2.0 is too much of a culture shock for some employees who have been with the company almost 30 years and just don’t see enough value in it to invest the time.

We have discussed among ourselves (right up to the CEO) that in the above case, perhaps a post written by us and approved by them (based on their notes) will suffice.

By: Ari Adler

Ari Adler — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 17:30:27 +0000

Too often, public relations, media relations, marketing, advertising, internal communications — they all end up in their own silos and you lose the effective offense and the protective defense that would exist if they could all collaborate. Social media has just exacerbated the situation.

I applaud you for getting this conversation started. It’s well overdue because millions of people now have the ability to pull back the curtain on organizations and find out the Wizard of Oz really is just some old snake-oil salesman from Kansas.

By: Tom O'Keefe

Tom O'Keefe — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 14:42:20 +0000

David, I agree with you and Narciso, here. Working collaboratively on social media is key if there’s multiple teams with a hand in it.

To add to that, whatever the gray areas may be, companies also need to have one, consistent voice communicating with the masses. Companies can’t have that one voice without collaboration.

Thanks, David.

Tom O’Keefe
@tomokeefe1

By: Narciso Tovar, Big Noise Communications

Narciso Tovar, Big Noise Communications — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 14:27:41 +0000

I think you hit the nail ont he head when you said that teams need to work collaboratively. Unlike the scenario of ‘having too many cooks in the kitchen,’ having smart folks work together for one common goal is not only smart, it is advisable – regardless where you may stand on any particular issue.

By: Jamie Bull

Jamie Bull — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 14:01:42 +0000

The most recent gray area I’ve run in to is managing personal digital profiles at work, or the challenges of managing multiple personas (personal and profession) through a single channel.

Taking agency time to tweet between 9 and 5, when not all of it is PR/Marketing related is a touchy subject, especially for digital newbies who usually see it as a clear waste of time and a suck on the bottom line.

With research to back me up, and being able state my case with confidence and conviction always helps out too.

By: David

David — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 13:57:41 +0000

Thanks for jumping in, Stuart. Always appreciate your point of view.

To clarify, the point of the post wasn’t to critique the ghostwriting issue. It was about the fact that intelligent people have varying views on it and topics like it. In light of that, it’s important to talk through these areas and decide on your organization’s stance – whether for, against or in between – so that everyone is on the same page.